British Standards not highly regarded

[KennyKen]

Thought this would be the best place to vent.

As most of you know I work abroad. Australia. So during my long arduous Nightshift I got talking to some international sparkies. Three Aussie and One Canadian. The old conversation of Standards got brought up. To which I said that I thought very highly of British Standards considering I'm An UK time served Sparks. I got a resounding laughter from the Aussies who's first reply was "You guys still wire Ring mains pre 2nd world war" and what's stopping one leg to become live blah blah blah.

So after my long explanation apparently they see British tradesmen as a bit of a joke. Everyone has a right to an opinion but I found quite astonishing espically I find the British work to be of a higher standard. Plastic conduit is used over here for industrial and commercial installs. Two pin plugs on certain equipment which are flimsy. Most Socket and three phase outlets are plastic. No metal outlets for industrial premises. No fuses in plugs. Testing is not as thorough. Catinary Wire Installs used for cable containment rather then tray. Hardly any use of SWA except where I'm working. In normal circumstances it's orange flex. 240v on building sites. When I said we use 110v. Well they couldn't quite grasp the 55v safe touch voltage.

Rant over.

 

[Pete999]

Thought this would be the best place to vent.

As most of you know I work abroad. Australia. So during my long arduous Nightshift I got talking to some international sparkies. Three Aussie and One Canadian. The old conversation of Standards got brought up. To which I said that I thought very highly of British Standards considering I'm An UK time served Sparks. I got a resounding laughter from the Aussies who's first reply was "You guys still wire Ring mains pre 2nd world war" and what's stopping one leg to become live blah blah blah.

So after my long explanation apparently they see British tradesmen as a bit of a joke. Everyone has a right to an opinion but I found quite astonishing espically I find the British work to be of a higher standard. Plastic conduit is used over here for industrial and commercial installs. Two pin plugs on certain equipment which are flimsy. Most Socket and three phase outlets are plastic. No metal outlets for industrial premises. No fuses in plugs. Testing is not as thorough. Catinary Wire Installs used for cable containment rather then tray. Hardly any use of SWA except where I'm working. In normal circumstances it's orange flex. 240v on building sites. When I said we use 110v. Well they couldn't quite grasp the 55v safe touch voltage.

Rant over.

I think the reason for Canadians and Aussies laughing at our Tradesmsn is because there are to many "boil in the bag Sparkies" sorry Kenny couldn't resist

 

[KennyKen]

Hahaha. Probably done a stint with the 10 week wonders

 

[Lagentium]

Have those sparks worked over here Kenny? I always bought we were belt and braces making our standard better than other countries. But having not worked in any other places yet, I don't know.

 

[Rpa07]

You're obviously the most sensible out of them all Kenny. I like to think that we as a nation have always been hard working and conscientious and judging from our past I believe this to be true, we do however have to be careful not to let this go by dilution of skills and education. It is up to us as a nation to keep this together and Brexit could well be the way if the powers wouldn't sit on their hands AND the remainers would get their heads out of their ar@ses and stand together.
Mmmh - I'm sticking to hard work and good standards - WHO'S WITH ME!

 

[Marvo]

I think the BS standards are fairly highly regarded. From my own experience they're a bit slow to adapt, for example RCD's were a requirement on socket outlets in RSA many years befoire they were in the UK. They've also recently taken to treating symptoms rather than causes with the steel CU debacle. As previously mentioned the limited scope quals probably did nothing for the image of UK trades...

**edit** I'm not trying to start a slanging match here so please don't read my post that way. Thanks.

 

[Risteard]

No fuses in plugs.

Whilst that is true, it completely ignores the fact that they have no need for fuses in plugs.

 

[Risteard]

for example RCD's were a requirement on socket outlets in RSA many years befoire they were in the UK.

And throughout most of Europe/the world - in fact in many countries the idea of non-RCD protected sockets would rightly cause outrage!

 

[dmxtothemax]

it's nothing personal about the UK !
BUT
Aussie's don't care what anyone thinks !
And we love nothing more than a bit of stirring !

 

[Gaz92552]

I found the British standards of work being carried out a lot higher! I was working in commercial, little bit of domestic and industrial for the last 3 years in Aus and was regularly shocked by the standard at which they would leave/install things. Company I was working at actually preferred British sparks over Aussies. The Australian approach to testing is a joke, most of them go with the approach that it's on an rcd why bother testing.

 

[KennyKen]

I think most Aussies who come to work in U.K. Have bad experiences as well. They get manipulated through Tradies down under and work for a ---- poor outfit who can't run a bath let alone job. So I do see their impressions of our system but not necessarily standards which have many flaws. I don't think Sparks in U.K. Get paid enough but that's another thread entirely.

 

[KennyKen]

it's nothing personal about the UK !
BUT
Aussie's don't care what anyone thinks !
And we love nothing more than a bit of stirring !

I don't think that's entirely true... they got a bit touchy when I mentioned a few aspects of the trade that I thought were strange.

 

[Wilko]

Not surprising Kenny - people are people anywhere. They like what they know and often react poorly to something different. IMHO (having worked both sides), "best practice" in UK can be a higher standard.
Aus has their own design rules (similar to BS) and I recall that Mercedes had modify their cars (!!!!!) to be allowed to import. More specialist designers and researchers one MB Lab than all Aus, with heaps of experience, proven results etc, but us Aussies we know best. Gotta laugh

 

[dmxtothemax]

Don't forget us Aussies are your kin folk !
The original Aussie's came from the UK !

 

[telectrix]

The original Aussie's came from UK Magistrates Courts!

corrected that for you.

 

[tex431]

Working in NZ I would defiantly say Uk trained sparks are of a lot higher standard than here. The testing here is shocking / non existent. Look at there Code of compliance form to be filled in for notifiable work
http://www.ewrb.govt.nz/assets/EWRB/files/News-and-resources/forms/combined-coc-esc.pdf

The rcd test makes me laugh the most. Press the test button

 

[Pete999]

Working in NZ I would defiantly say Uk trained sparks are of a lot higher standard than here. The testing here is shocking / non existent. Look at there Code of compliance form to be filled in for notifiable work
http://www.ewrb.govt.nz/assets/EWRB/files/News-and-resources/forms/combined-coc-esc.pdf

The rcd test makes me laugh the most. Press the test button

Yes but they do the HAKA over there so everything should be OK

 

[David M]

Working in NZ I would defiantly say Uk trained sparks are of a lot higher standard than here. The testing here is shocking / non existent. Look at there Code of compliance form to be filled in for notifiable work
http://www.ewrb.govt.nz/assets/EWRB/files/News-and-resources/forms/combined-coc-esc.pdf

The rcd test makes me laugh the most. Press the test button

Literally? (my bold underlined)

 

[Dave the spark]

The original Aussie's came from UK Magistrates Courts!

corrected that for you.

Pretty sure you'll find the original Aussies were there long before the white man

 

[Risteard]

The rcd test makes me laugh the most. Press the test button

I wouldn't laugh too hard - I've heard suggestions that we may be heading the same way with respect to RCD testing.